Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-10-21
JESUS As A PREACHER.

/ lnOuEu lHo puJ SlCdi appear duCc
and manner of Our Lord are IN.
known to US, we are not left in sim
liar doubt as to, what we may call,
His intellectual manner. A stran-
ger, knowing nothing OF His pecu-
liar claim to Messiahship, but thor
Oughly familiar with the methods
of other teachers, Jewish rabbis and
Oriental rhapsodists, Greek philos-
ophers, and Roman rhetoricians,
would have been impressed with
the unique originality of the Cali
lean. The writer's and lecturers of
that time-as of all other times
being themselves the product of
their schools, wore the rhetorical
garb of their special guilds of
thought. Their choice of words,
quotations, tropical phrases, defini.
tions, indeed, the whole setting of
their ideas, proclaimed their origin,
as truly as their brogue revealed
their nationality. But no school
had left a trace of its influence up
on the mind of Jesus. If He quot.
ed from any religious book, from
the wisdom of the ancients, or from
the proverbs Of the day, it was
with such novel application and
strange pertinency as to put new
life Toto the quotations, rather than
borrow light from them. He
cited no human authorities, but im-
pressed His ideas by proofs and
analogies from living nature, and
from habits of men, women, and
children in everyday life. Seeing
abstract truth by immediate mental
vision, He caught its illustration
with His eye, His ear, and through
His sympathetic contact with So
ciety and individuals. His
thoughts went beneath and above
and around and through all the
thoughts Of men, as sunshine among
torches. Yet he did not elaborate
His expressions ; wrote nothing ;
hardly premeditated His words ;
spoke in answer to mems hasty
questiOns-now OF taunting skep-
tic, a doctor of the law, an igno-
rant peasant, an inquiring night
visitor, clamoring multitude.
1t is these easy, extemporate talks,
collected by simple men who heard
them, and reported in disconnected
scraps, that have revolutiOnlzed
the thinking OF the ages. Mlghtler
than the writer's Of thought, which
men have reservoired with stupen-
dous talent and patience, Is the
overflow of Jesus mind. Men
make an illumination by burning
their very brains, and the light
glImmers afar; but Jesus shines
with the ease and fullness of the
dawn. lie also taught the doc
trine of daily providences with
persuasive effect because His own
mind rested in the fact of 1t. His
outward life was tossed like a ship
in the angry waves, but His heart
was swayless like the hammock
that is steadied by the attraction
of the whole globe. His words
were charged with His Own imper-
turbability. They came like His
breath upon the disciples face
when He impaired to them His
benediction.. :. Had we time we
might greatly enlarge this analysis
from the standpoint of an ordinary
nearer of our Lords discOurses. His
intense earnes tness, His love for
men, the practically of His adj
dresses to the conscience, fears and
hopes Of His auditors, the accom-.
plishment of miracles, the testimo-
ny of John the Baptist, &C., we're
doubtless made account of. But
the three features nOted-His absO.
Lutte originality, shown both sub
stance and style; His limitless
comprehension of truth evidenced
in the ease with which He taught
it; and His conscious certainty of
whatever He said-gave greatest
weight TO His utterances.-J James
". LudIOle, ID. d., in HOmiletic Re.
rieio for October.
The people of Lunenburg and
Nottoway counties are excited over
"a ...nAon.. ..iAnnnnnL IA ,.,o.IA IL. -.